Grown Up
by adidas23
Summary: Newest story
1. Chapter 1

Yoshikazi

"Don't laugh too hard, Bea, or you'll pee your pants again," I warned as I chewed on my cheeseburger.

"Shut up, Yoshi!" Bea quickly stopped laughing. "I brought you guys all this food anyway."

Aaron and Brayden rolled their eyes and chorused; "Thank you, Beatrice."

She smiled smugly. "So, how do you know who's who?" she asked for the tenth time.

"Woman! It's _Halo_. You just play it. And kill people." Aaron said as he blew up Brayden's unsuspecting player.

Bea then launched into some more girl-droning about how she didn't see why boys need to blow up stuff and see blood. I turned up the volume until it shook the entire room when someone used a weapon.

"Alright! I give up!" Brayden shouted and got up from his Love Sac to grab some chips. I quickly grabbed the opportunity to beat Aaren at his own game.

"Yoshikazi Takahara!" I jumped at the reprimand.

"Yes?" I sat up straight, expecting to see my Dad glaring at me. Instead it was my sister's face that I saw.

"Aww, Akemi? What? I thought you were in bed 'cause of jet lag."

"Well, I was," she said grumpily, "until all your bombing woke me up!" she pointed at the TV where a burning tank was crackling.

I scowled and threw a continuous stream of bombs from my inventory.

"I'm sorry! I can't hear you!" I screamed at her over the explosions. She yelled angrily at me in Japanese. I smirked at her. There was nothing she could do.

Akemi crossed the blue shag carpet to where my X-Box sat. she popped the disc out. And snapped it in half.

"You little witch!" I leaped up and charged after her. She darted out of my room and slammed the door.

"What a batch," Beatrice yawned sympathetically.

"Where'd she come from?" Aaren asked as he held the two disc halves together.

"Came in from Japan this morning." I fell back onto my Love Sac.

"Sweet! Hot foreign-exchanged girl!" Aaren and Brayden high-fived.

"Hey, Dez," Brayden added and looked back at Dez in his normal spot on my bed. "You can stop staring at the doorway now. That chick will not be comin' around soon."

"Okay, guys, don't even!" I whined. "That 'chick' is my _sister!_"

Dez snorted a mouthful of soda out of his nose. "But your sis is a tomboy! Not a supermodel!"

"Enough about her!" Bea snapped. "Let's plan what we're doing tomorrow."

"Swimming and indoor surfing!" Brayden imitated catching a wave.

"Nah, come on, it's October. Let's do something freaky." I pushed Brayden over.

"Like the _Blair Witch Project_," Dez agreed.

"Hmm? Witch? You mean like cast spells and stuff?" Aaren was confused.

"I think it's where these people took a video camera out in the woods and camped there…. Like, looking for some witch."

"Ooh, sounds scary. Let's do it!" he paused. "But no one has a camera."

"Scavenger hunt!" Dez fell back onto the bed and closed his eyes.

"I'm in!" Aaren said. If Aaren was in, Brayden was in. Dez nodded with a faint smile on his lips. So he was in. and everywhere Dez was, you would find Bea.

"Ok, so when's this gonna be?"

"right on Halloween." Aaren was getting way into it. "And you're not allowed to bring anything. Which means no phones, either." He looked over at me as I texted. I scowled at him and turned away.

"Um, do we get partners?" Bea reached tentatively for Dez's hand.

Everyone ignored her.

"Hey, Yoshi," Aaren had one more thing to say.

"What?"

"Bring your sister."

"No. Sorry, Bea, but you gotta go. It's twelve and Dez's already passing out." I sort of kicked her out of my room… but she wasn't supposed to be here anyway. This was _our_ sleepover. Guys only.


	2. Chapter 2

Yoshikazi

"Get up!"

I wheezed as something large, heavy, and named Aaren jumped on my stomach. My usual wakeup call.

I reached up to my bed and patted Dez to wake him up. He wasn't there.

"Aaren, where's Dez?"

"Oh, he's still in the kitchen."

I looked suspiciously at him. They were up early… they were walking around my house… and without me.

I grouchily followed Aaren up to the kitchen, where I knew I would find Dez with my sister.

When I walked through the door, it was like looking at a younger, much prettier version of myself. Akemi had the large, green, almond-shaped eyes that our family was famous for, the perfectly smooth, petite ski-slope nose from our Mom, and the strangely curvy lips that only the two fo us had out of the entire family.

Right now those green eyes of hers were working their magic on Dez and Aaren, who had refilled his cereal bowl and sat entranced. I listened to her as I got my own breakfast out. She was talking about Japan. I could trace a very faint accent from her last eight years of living there.

"Hey, Yoshi," Aaren spit chunks of cereal as he spoke. "How come she went and you didn't?"

"It was a… hard time for our family. He was nine, so he could actually understand he wanted to stay here with Dad, and I just wanted to be with my Mom's family. People who looked like her." The green of her eyes darkened as she thought of Mom's death.

"And so, why did you come back after eight years?" Dez had never heard me talk about this.

Akemi hesitated. She looked from me to my friends, asking me what she should say. Tell them that our Dad was dying too? In almost the exact same way that our Mom had?

"I, uh… decided it was time to come back home." She decided to explain a small part of it.

"I think I broke your toilet,"

Of course I turned around to find Brayden backing cautiously out of the bathroom. We all peered curiously at the half-closed door.

"What's in there? A bomb or something?"

"Well—"

CRACK!

We all dropped to the floor behind the counter.

"Oh, so now you're avoiding me?" Bea was ticked.

"Who are you?" my sister looked Bea up and down.

"No one you know," Bea smarted off.

"Oh. Well, then, get out of my house." Akemi didn't take crap form anyone. She looked indignant in her manga-character pajamas and slightly ruffled hair. She was half a foot shorter than Bea. If you had just looked at her and then at Bea, you just knew that Bea would win a fight. But my sister was stronger'n crap, meaning if Bea didn't leave, and no one stepped in, Bea would be no more.

"Ok, shorty, I will if you can make me."

"Look, I know you must really think you can take me on, but get real." Akemi almost looked like an indignant two-year-old who'd just been told she couldn't do anything.

"Hey, um, Akemi, I don't think you should mess with—"

"No, shh," I shushed Aaren. "Watch." I slowly backed away from the table as Bea got closer. "Oh, and Bea, this is a warning. My sister gets very moody if people don't do what she says." I pulled Brayden and Dez back by their shirts.

Bea absolutely towered over Akemi in her rage.

"Look, to get out of the house you should head towards the door, not the center of the room."

"You wanna fight, or—" Bea couldn't even finish her sentence before Akemi was out of her seat and had turned Bea over, a front-flip through the air straight onto her back, just by jerking her arm. And then Akemi returned to her breakfast and started searching through the newspaper.

"Whoa! She's like, Lucy Liu, except… _real!_" Dez was dazed.

"Lucy Liu _is_ real," Brayden grunted as he tried to lift Bea up.

Aaren and I took one look at each other and grinned widely. We knew right then, that as long as my sister was around, we wouldn't hear any crap from Bea.

Heaven on Earth!

"Ok, so, I had Treks set out all the scavenger hunt stuff earlier today," I explained how my older brother had set everything up. Everyone would get one object far away, and the rest fairly close to each other. And how they would each have a color-coded paper, just to eliminate confusion. We were searching for his creepy toys, of course. He had also provided a way for Dez to stand a chance of not getting stuck with Bea.

"Pick a paper, get a partner," Treks grinned widely.

I drew out Dez's name. Brayden got my sister. So, Aaren was stuck with Bea.

"Can we draw again?" they both whined out miserably.

"No, that's hardly fair. Ok, rules, you can't set out till nine." They all nodded. "If either one of you screams, you can't win. But you can try to get other teams to scream."

Aaren grinned creepily at this and breathed heavily on Bea's neck until she slapped him away.

"don't hide other people's stuff. And, um… lose your partner by deadline, two o'clock, you lose. Team with the most object by two o'clock wins, blah blah blah." They knew the rest.

Treks gave us all our first clue and watched as we waited for nine o'clock. He had told me to give them 'till two. I thoguth the time limit was ridiculously long, but Treks knew more than me about these games.


	3. Chapter 3

Akemi

Brayden and I got right down to trying to figure out our first clue. It was maybe 8:50, and the sky was already absorbing all the heat and light faster by the second.

"'Everyone played this as a kid.'" Brayden muttered as he read the note. I closed my eyes, remembering America from before.

"It's tag. The tag tree," I said moments later.

Brayden looked at me with his morning blue eyes. He untangled his fingers from his hair. He was your classic all-American boy. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, with that classic straight nose and wide lips. A very handsome face. The type of face I wasn't used of seeing after spending eight years with black-haired, black-eyed people.

"It's time!" Treks winked at me as he announced the start.

"Treks is planning something for this game," I whispered to Brayden as we headed to the park. "He's going to try to stop us."

He nodded and looked around anxiously. "I expected it. With the time limit and all."

It took us about a half hour to get to the park. In the lifeless blue moonlight I could see a doll hanging from one of the tree branches.

I snorted. "Look, it's a hung doll. How Treks-like." I snapped the tape off the tree. At the same instant, two figures dropped from the tree, jumping out at us.

I came so close to screaming. So close.

Luckily the paralysis that always comes over me when I'm scared wouldn't let it out of my throat. Treks' friend was an absolute monster in size! With one hand he held my neck. In the other he held Brayden's. I don't know how that guy hid up in the tree without me noticing his fat head or a mammoth leg.

"Aw, come on, we were freaking you out for a minute there, weren't we?" I recognized this voice. It was Aaron's older brother, Jeff.

"Oh, Jeff," I said sarcastically. "Just give us the hint."

He scowled at being found out so quickly and walked up to me till we were face-to-face.

"I can't tell. The only way you could get it out of me is with a… kiss." He closed his eyes and puckered his lips.

I rolled my eyes. "I would, Jeff, I really would. But right now I'm busy being strangled."

"It's right here," said Brayden. He had picked it out of the big guy's sleeve.

"Hey, that ain't fair!" the big guy's voice was strangely high for someone of his size. I only knew one person like that. It was Jimmy Reed, the gym teacher's kid.

"The center of the city," he read to me.

"That's the forest." I replied instantly.

"Forest?"

"Yeh. The trails."

He nodded and then struggled to get out of Jimmy's grasp. "Uh… how?" he went limp after trying to free himself for a few minutes.

"OH, Jeffy!" I tried to absolutely smother my voice with honey. Jeff immediately perked up. So did Brayden. "Please let us go!" I begged and widened my eyes. Darn this dark of a night! My eyes were my big key to charming people. He must have seen, though, because he sounded uncertain.

"I… can't?"

"Come on. You know I'd be so happy if you did!" I tried not to sound completely disgusted with myself.

Jimmy seemed to fall for my acting. "Ok. How about a trade?"

"what do you want to trade?" Brayden was totally focused on Jeff.

But when he spoke, he broke part of the trance. Jeff went back to grinning mischievously. "I already told you what my prices is."

I sighed. A kiss? Really? "Ok, but put us down first."

Jeff caught on to what I was doing too late. Jimmy had already put us down by the time he yelled out, "Stop!"

I was off like a bullet, taking Brayden and the doll with me.

"all right! One of thirteen things, and it's only 10:15." Brayden said sarcastically. "This thing is rigged so no one could ever have a chance of winning."

"Well, everything else should be in this forest, so that will go by a lot quicker," I thought about where the center of the city could mean, _exactly_. I knew it was in the forest, but what trail? What pavilion?

"Brayden," he looked over at me, slightly surprised. "What part of the forest do you think it's at?"

"Well, in the eight years you've been gone, they put up a new pavilion. Everyone knows it's the center of the forest, 'cause they called it 'Center Pavilion'."

"Oh," I felt embarrassed at the obviousness of it.

A click on the street brought my attention to two guys following along the street behind us. I didn't think much of them. But when they were still behind us as we got to the forest, I began to get nervous.

Brayden knew his way right to the pavilion. Just before he had even put his foot down on the first step, someone had come out from the shadows right in front of him. And he simply pushed them away impatiently.

"Cut it out, Yoshi, you won't get me to scream," he stomped past Yoshi and started looking for our next creepy toy.

"How many have you guys got?" Yoshi asked curiously.

"Don't tell him!" Brayden spoke the moment I opened my mouth.

"Sorry, Yoshi," I said in mock apology. "We may have more than you, or we might not."

He didn't say anything.

"Hey, where's your partner?" I looked suspiciously at my brother.

"Oh, he's off doing his job." Yoshi grinned coolly and sauntered off all high and mighty.

"Hey, Akemi," Brayden called to me. I followed him up onto the pavilion. He was crouched down low, looking at a hole that had a small light coming out of it.

"I think I'ts in here," he grunted as he stood up. "But I can't fit my hand in there. I think ours will fit."

I nervously looked at the small opening. Who knew what kind of gross bugs and things there could be in there? But I didn't' want to look like a wuss in front of Brayden, so I agreed.

MY fingers brushed against the clammy wood. The small source of light was not that far back, really. I'd only have to stick my hand in up to my wrist. The splintered edges of the hole clawed at my hand, creeping up my arm.

What if something grabbed my hand right now?

No, stop it, I told myself. You're going to lose this game for boot you and Brayden if you creep yourself out like that.

My finger brushed against something round and smooth.

"I think I got it," I said to Brayden. I flexed my fingers and got a hold on it. I had to grip it with my fingertips in order to get my hand out of the hole. It was a skull flashlight.

"I wonder how Trek got this in there? His hands wouldn't' fit." I waved the flashlight around as I looked for the off switch. As the beam of light illuminated the forest, it also showed the two guys I had seen earlier had follows us this far. My paranoia kicked in.

"Brayden, did you see that?"

"See what?" he looked up from our new clue.

"Two guys have been following us ever since we got away from Jeff. They're over there," I tried to stress to him how freaked out I was getting.

He gave me his full attention. "Like stalkers? How are you sure they're following us?"

I looked at him, annoyed. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe it's all coincidence that they decided to go from the park to center pavilion on Halloween night, same as us! Silly me, freaking out for no reason," I tried to peer through the dark towards the place I knew they had been… but I didn't know if they had moved.

"Well, if you're that worried about it, I guess I could… go talk to them?" Brayden now understood my strange anxiousness.

"Hey," a voice called loudly in the dark.

My head jerked up and towards the direction of the voice. A boy had boldly walked up close to us. He was tall—about six feet, and had a slim, athletic build. His face was like Brayden's—the all-American boy, but he had light brown hair, tanner skin and fuller lips.

I wouldn't mind getting kidnapped by him, I thought dreamily. Oh, shut up! Yes I would mind! I tried hard to focus on the situation at hand.

The tall boy nodded to someone behind Brayden and I, someone who picked me up and draped me over their shoulder.

"Brayden! I hope you know these people!" my voice became shrill with panic, trying to think of another reason they could be doing this.

"Huh? Aren't these Trek's friends? Like Jeff and Jimmy?" I heard panic in his voice, too, as he tried to assess how he would fare in a fight against the six foot boy and his friend who had me on his shoulder.


	4. Chapter 4

Brayden

My god! How could I do this? I _lost!_ I thought desperately, trying to remember which direction Yoshi had headed off to.

"Yoshi!" my voice cracked in my distress. "Yoshi!"

"What?" it was a faint call from off to my right. I sprinted toward it, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in my head and the fact that I couldn't really see out of my left eye.

"Yoshi!"

"I said what!" he was behind me now—I had almost overshot him.

"Yoshi, please tell me you arranged to have someone kidnap your sister!"

He looked blankly at me.

"Yoshikazi! This is _not_ funny! Call it off right now! I forfeit!" I was furious at him for doing this to me. Making me this scared.

"Akemi got… kidnapped?" he slowly frowned.

"Yeah, by this tall kid and his friend! Now quit playing stupid!"

"I… I didn't tell anyone to… are you…"

"Yoshi, your sister is _gone_."

The yelling idd it. He got the picture. I wasn't kidding.

"Where did they go? We can still catch up, can't we?!"

Twelve o'clock and still no sign of where they could have gone.

Yoshi and I had decided to go to Treks, he was old…er. He'd have a better idea of what to do than we would.

"The two guys you're describing sounds like… oh, what are their names… Landon and Kris! Yeah. Yoshi, remember them?"

"No."

"well, maybe you weren't old enough. You were only nine."

"why would I remember them? Did they kidnap her then, too, or something?"

Treks scowled at his little brother, and Yoshi returned an almost identical expression. Anyone outside of the Takahara family didn't posses the courage to stand up to that look. It was especially fierce coming from a giant of a person like Treks. He looked like Yoshi on steroids.

"No, they were like her best friends. They've kept in touch with her all these years. Do you not pay attention to anything that happens?"

"But why would some of her best friends kidnap her?

"Oh, it's a tradition of theirs. They used to always kidnap you, too. You used to get so pissed about it."

"I remember that. Didn't they always take me to their 'hideout'?" Yoshi scratched his head and pointed back in the forest.

"Think so. And I bet it's still there." Treks was already bored about the whole thing.

"Brayden, come on. If it's them they'll be at the old construction site."


	5. Chapter 5

Akemi

"Why are you carrying me? I can walk." I complained for the thousandth time.

"Oh, God, just put her down or she'll never shut up!" the six-foot kid was already tired of me. Good. Then maybe they'd let me go and kidnap someone less annoying.

The guy who'd been carrying me grunted as he grabbed me on my waist and lowered me to the ground. The moment my feet were sturdily on the ground, I bolted. They were after me as quick as I had taken off. But I was slightly faster than them. If I could keep up my speed, they wouldn't be able to catch me.

I chanced a look behind me, and was horrified. They had slowed down, but were still keeping up. I knew they were waiting for me to wear out. Well. I knew of a place where I could hide… well, a place I knew from living here eight years ago. If they hadn't finished building it.

I sped up a little more, so they couldn't' see which direction I went in the dark. I darted between and underneath old iron beams and panes of glass. This construction site had been a little hideout for me and two of my best friends. We used to squeeze into one of the closed-off buildings and hang out on the top floor.

I grinned as it came into view. Thank you, whatever lazy bum didn't ever get up the energy to finish this!

The six foot kid had kept up with me, but disappeared behind another building to the right. The other guy had fallen behind a long time ago.

The tallest building, four stories high, was only twenty feet away now, and I began to get a cold feeling in my stomach. The opening was much smaller than I had remembered it. An eight-year-old could get in and out of it easy, but a fourteen-year-old? Good luck, man. The six foot kid was back, but he was worn out. I could hear him panting heavily as he tried to catch up with me. My own throat was burning and my legs were getting heavier with every step. I had to try to squeeze through that hole. Either way I was caught—I might as well take the chance.

I dove for it when I was close enough. I wriggled my way in up to my waist easily, but got caught at my hips. What a great thing, it really helped my complex. Not.

"Come on, come on!" I scrambled for _some_ sort of purchase on the ground. Six-foot grabbed my ankle and began steadily pulling me out. I kicked out and hit something. So I kicked again. All the kicking didn't help out at all, he was still pulling me out harder than I could hold on. One final tug from him and my grip was loosened. He quickly pinned me down. I didn't resist. I couldn't. All I could do was sit there and catch my breath.

"K… Kris!" the six foot kid wheezed out the name as loud as he could. Now he wasn't pinning me down anymore, he was just resting on top of me.

It was getting harder and harder for me to think as I began to suffocate. I tried harder to focus. Kris. Kris? I knew that name. Kris. He was one of my best friends. Could it be…? But firneds don't kidnap each other. But our game… if it was Kris, the six foot kid would probably be Landen… if they had stayed friends…

"Geez, Oaks," he coughed out the words with a dry laugh. "You got _fast._"

It was Landen. Only Landen and Kris used my middle name.

"And you, Landen," I grunted. "You got _big_."

He laughed and sat there for a minute longer until he got the point. He lifted the majority of his weight off me and apologized as Kris came slowly over.

Kris rivaled Landen in height, but Kris was the clear winner of being more _built_. He had kept his short, dark hair and dark eyes that he had always stood out for in his blond, blue-eyed family. He still had a kind, boyish face that had got me to be friends with him in the first place.

"So, I guess we win this round." He grinned widely as he took in the sight of Landen pinning me to the dirt.

"Well, it isn't exactly fair, you guys have actually _grown_ in the past eight years," I complained happily.


End file.
